Mexico: 4th Meeting of Cubans residing in Latin America & Caribbean (+Photo)

Delegates from 16 countries will come together this week in Mexico City to participate in the 4th Regional Meeting of Cubans Residing in Latin America and the Caribbean, sources from the Foreign Ministry reported.

The event will take place from October 18 to 20 and will address not only immigration issues, but also responds to the marked interest of Cuban nationals residing outside the country to achieve greater participation in the ongoing economic and social development processes in Cuba, Ernesto Soberon told Prensa Latina.

The director general of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad (DACCRE) noted that the meeting will be held after 'a great leap in political terms: the participation, for the first time, of Cubans residing in other nations in the discussion of the draft of the new Constitution of the Republic.'

Through the Nation and Emigration website, opinions were submitted from 123 countries, 40 percent of which were reflected in the new approved constitutional text, he explained.

Soberon also stressed that there is an increase in the participation of Cubans located outside the island in exchange, cooperation, investment and business projects of different kinds, and predicted that in the future this would grow, especially at the local level.

In his opinion, the permanent and irreversible course of analysis and updating of migration policy has contributed to the strengthening of links with Cuban emigrees. Since this process began in 1978, 'No measure has constituted a setback; it has always been advancing, with greater or lesser speed,' he highlighted.

Regarding the upcoming Meeting, he insisted that the focus of debates will be this element of greater participation, while migration measures are being studied to solve the few pending issues that have yet to be resolved in this area.

During the encounter in the Mexican capital, other issues of interest to both parties will be addressed, such as the tightening of the US economic, financial and commercial blockade and its impacts; and an exchange on the best working practices of national associations of Cubans residing in Latin America and the Caribbean.